Character Sketches of Romance Volume I Part 36

BEG (_Callum_), page to Fergus M'Ivor, in _Waverley_, a novel by sir W. Scott (time, George II.).

_Beg (Toshach)_, MacGillie Chattanach's second at the combat.--Sir W.

Scott, _Fair Maid of Perth_ (time, Henry IV.).

BEGGAR OF BETHNAL GREEN (_The_), a drama by S. Knowles (recast and produced, 1834). Bess, daughter of Albert, "the blind beggar of Bethnal Green," was intensely loved by Wilford, who first saw her in the streets of London, and subsequently, after diligent search, discovered her in the Queen's Arms inn at Romford. It turned out that her father Albert was brother to lord Woodville, and Wilford was his truant son, so that Bess was his cousin Queen Elizabeth sanctioned their nuptials, and took them under her own conduct. (See BLIND.)

BEGGARS (_King of the_), Bampfylde Moore Carew. He succeeded Clause Patch (1693, 1730-1770).

BEGGAR'S DAUGHTER (_The_), "Bessee the beggar's daughter of Bethnal Green," was very beautiful, and was courted by four suitors at once--a knight, a country squire, a rich merchant, and the son of an inn-keeper at Romford. She told them all they must first obtain the consent of her poor blind father, the beggar of Bethnal Green, and all slunk off except the knight, who went and asked leave to marry "the pretty Bessee." The beggar gave her for a "dot," 3000, and 100 for her trousseau, and informed the knight that he (the beggar) was Henry, son and heir of sir Simon de Montfort, and that he had disguised himself as a beggar to escape the vigilance of spies, who were in quest of all those engaged on the baron's side in the battle of Evesham.--Percy's _Reliques_, II. ii 10.

The value of money was about twelve times more than its present purchase value, so that the "dot" given was equal to 36,000.

BEGGAR'S OPERA (_The_), by Gay (1727). The beggar is captain Macheath.

(For plot, see MACHEATH.)

BEGGAR'S PEt.i.tION (_The_), a poem by the Rev. Thomas Moss, minister of Brierly Hill and Trentham, in Staffords.h.i.+re. It was given to Mr.

Smart, the printer, of Wolverhampton.--_Gentleman's Magazine_, lxx.

41. BEGUINES [_Beg-wins_], the earliest of all lay societies of women united for religious purposes. Brabant says the order received its name from St. Begga, daughter of Pepin, who founded it at Namur', in 696; but it is more likely to be derived from _le Begue_ ("the Stammerer"); and if so, it was founded at Liege, in 1180.

BEH'RAM, captain of the s.h.i.+p which was to convey prince a.s.sad to the "mountain of fire," where he was to be offered up in sacrifice. The s.h.i.+p being driven on the sh.o.r.es of queen Margia'na's kingdom, a.s.sad became her slave, but was recaptured by Behram's crew, and carried back to the s.h.i.+p. The queen next day gave the s.h.i.+p chase. a.s.sad was thrown overboard, and swam to the city whence he started. Behram also was drifted to the same place. Here the captain fell in with the prince, and reconducted him to the original dungeon. Bosta'na, a daughter of the old fire-wors.h.i.+pper, taking pity on the prince, released him; and, at the end, a.s.sad married queen Margiana, Bostana married prince Amgiad (half-brother of a.s.sad), and Behram, renouncing his religion, became a mussulman, and entered the service of Amgiad, who became king of the city.--_Arabian Nights_ ("Amgiad and a.s.sad").

BELA'RIUS, a n.o.bleman and soldier in the army of Cym'beline (3 _syl._) king of Britain. Two villains having sworn to the king that he was "confederate with the Romans," he was banished, and for twenty years lived in a cave; but he stole away the two infant sons of the king out of revenge. Their names were Guide'rius and Arvir'agus. When these two princes were grown to manhood, a battle was fought between the Romans and Britons, in which Cymbeline was made prisoner, but Belarius coming to the rescue, the king was liberated and the Roman general in turn was made captive. Belarius was now reconciled to Cymbeline, and presenting to him the two young men, told their story; whereupon they were publicly acknowledged to be the sons of Cymbeline and princes of the realm.--Shakespeare, _Cymbeline_ (1605).

BEL BREE, wide-awake country girl in _The Other Girls_, by A.D.T.

Whitney. Dissatisfied with rustic life, she accompanies aunt Blin, a dressmaker, to Boston, works hard, is exposed to the temptations that beset a pretty girl in a city, but resists them. She is thrown out of work by the Boston fire, and "enters service" with satisfactory consequences to all concerned.

BELCH (_Sir Toby_), uncle of Olivia the rich countess of Illyria. He is a reckless roysterer of the old school, and a friend of sir Andrew Ague-cheek.--Shakespeare, _Twelfth Night_ (1614).

BELCOUR, a foundling adopted by Mr. Belcour, a rich Jamaica merchant, who at death left him all his property. He was in truth the son of Mr.

Stockwell, the clerk of Belcour, senior, who clandestinely married his master's daughter, and afterwards became a wealthy merchant. On the death of old Belcour, the young man came to England as the guest of his unknown father, fell in love with Miss Dudley, and married her.

He was hot-blooded, impulsive, high-spirited, and generous, his very faults serving as a foil to his n.o.ble qualities; ever erring and repenting, offending and atoning for his offences.--c.u.mberland, _The West Indian_ (1771).

BE'LED, one of the six Wise Men of the East, led by the guiding star to Jesus. He was a king, who gave to his enemy who sought to dethrone him half of his kingdom, and thus turned a foe into a fast friend.--Klopstock, _The Messiah_, v. (1747).

BELERMA, the lady whom Durandarte served for seven years as a knight-errant and peer of France. When, at length, he died at Roncesvalles, he prayed his cousin Montesi'nos to carry his heart to Belerma.

I saw a procession of beautiful damsels in mourning, with white turbans on their heads. In the rear came a lady with a veil so long that it reached the ground: her turban was twice as large as the largest of the others; her eyebrows were joined, her nose was rather flat, her mouth wide, but her lips of a vermilion color. Her teeth were thin-set and irregular, though very white; and she carried in her hand a fine linen cloth, containing a heart. Montesinos informed me that this lady was Belerma.--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, II. ii. 6 (1615).

BELE'SES (3 _syl_.), a Chaldaean soothsayer and a.s.syrian satrap, who told Arba'ces (3 _syl_.) governor of Me'dia, that he would one day sit on the throne of Nineveh and a.s.syria. His prophecy came true, and Beleses was rewarded with the government of Babylon.--Byron, _Sardanapalus_ (1819).

BEL'FIELD _(Brothers)._ The elder brother is a squire in Cornwall, betrothed to Sophia (daughter of sir Benjamin Dove), who loves his younger brother Bob. The younger brother is driven to sea by the cruelty of the squire, but on his return renews his acquaintance with Sophia. He is informed of her unwilling betrothal to the elder brother, who is already married to Violetta, but parted from her.

Violetta returns home in the same s.h.i.+p as Bob Belfield, becomes reconciled to her husband, and the younger brother marries Sophia.--Rich. c.u.mberland, _The Brothers_ (1769).

BEL'FORD, a friend of Lovelace (2 _syl_.). They made a covenant to pardon every sort of liberty which they took with each other.--Richardson, _Clarissa Harlowe_ (1749).

_Belford (Major)_, the friend of colonel Tamper, and the plighted hnsband of Mdlle. Florival.--G. Colman, sen., _The Deuce is in Him_ (1762).

BELGE (2 _syl_.), the mother of seventeen sons. She applied to queen Mercilla for aid against Geryon'eo, who had deprived her of all her offspring except five.--Spenser, _Faery Queen_, v. 10 (1596).

[Ill.u.s.tration] "Beige" is Holland, the "seventeen sons" are the seventeen provinces which once belonged to her; "Geryoneo" is Philip II. of Spain; and "Mercilla" is queen Elizabeth.

BELIAL, sons of, in the Bible _pa.s.sim_ means the lewd and profligate.

Milton has created the personality of Belial:

Belial came last; than whom a spirit more lewd Fell not from Heaven, or more gross to love Vice for itself. To him no temple stood Or altar smoked; yet who more oft than he In temples, and at altars, when the priest Tarns atheist, as did Eli's sons, who filled With l.u.s.t and violence the house of G.o.d?

In courts and palaces he also reigns, And in luxurious cities, where the noise Of riot ascends above their loftiest towers And injury and outrage; and when night Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine.

Milton, _Paradise Lost_, i. 490

On the other side up rose Belial, in act more graceful and humane; A fairer person lost not Heaven; he seemed For dignity composed, and high exploit.

But all was false and hollow; though his tongue.

Dropt manna, and could make the worse appear The better reason, to perplex and dash Maturest counsels; for his thoughts were low To vice industrious, but to n.o.bler deeds Timorous and slothful.

Milton, _Paradise Lost_, ii. 108.

BELIA'NIS OF GREECE _(Don)_, the hero of an old romance of chivalry on the model of _Am'adis de Gaul_. It was one of the books in don Quixote's library, but was not one of those burnt by the cure as pernicious and worthless.

"Don Belianis," said the cure, "with its two, three, and four parts, hath need of a dose of rhubarb to purge off that ma.s.s of bile with which he is inflamed. His Castle of Fame and other impertinences should be totally obliterated. This done, we would show him lenity in proportion as we found him capable of reform. Take don Belianis home with you, and keep him in close confinement."--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, I. i. 6 (1605).

BELINDA, niece and companion of lady John Brute. Young, pretty, full of fun, and possessed of 10,000. Heartfree marries her.--Vanbrugh, _The Provoked Wife_ (1697).

_Belin'da_, the heroine of Pope's _Rape of the Lock_. This mock heroic is founded on the following incident:--Lord Petre cut a lock of hair from the head of Miss Arabella Fermor, and the young lady resented the liberty as an unpardonable affront. The poet says Belinda wore on her neck two curls, one of which the baron cut off with a pair of scissors borrowed of Clarissa, and when Belinda angrily demanded that it should be delivered up, it had flown to the skies and become a meteor there.

(See BERENICE.)

_Belinda_, daughter of Mr. Blandford, in love with Beverley the brother of Clarissa. Her father promised sir William Bellmont that she should marry his son George, but George was already engaged to Clarissa. Belinda was very handsome, very independent, most irreproachable, and devotedly attached to Beverley. When he hinted suspicions of infidelity, she was too proud to deny their truth, but her pure and ardent love instantly rebuked her for giving her lover causeless pain.--A. Murphy, _All in the Wrong_ (1761).

_Belin'da_, the heroine of Miss Edgeworth's novel of the same name.

The object of the tale is to make the reader _feel_ what is good, and pursue it (1803).

_Belin'da_, a lodging-house servant-girl, very poor, very dirty, very kind-hearted, and shrewd in observation. She married, and Mr.

Middlewick the b.u.t.ter-man set her husband up in business in the b.u.t.ter line.--H. J. Byron, _Our Boys_ (1875).

BELINE (2 _syl_.), second wife of Argan the _malade imaginaire_, and step-mother of Angelique, whom she hates. Beline pretends to love Argan devotedly, humors him in all his whims, calls him "mon fils,"

and makes him believe that if he were to die it would be the death of her. Toinette induces Argan to put these specious protestations to the test by pretending to be dead. He does so, and when Beline enters the room, instead of deploring her loss, she cries in ecstasy:

"Le ciel en soit loue! Me voila delivree d'un pesant fardeau!... de quoi servait-il sur la terre? Un homme incommode a tout le monde, malpropre, degoutant ... mouchant, toussant, crachant toujours, sans esprit, ennuyeux, de manvaise humeur, fatiguant sans cesse les gens, et grondant jour et nuit servantes et valets."--(iii. 18).

She then proceeds to ransack the room for bonds, leases, and money; but Argan starts up and tells her she has taught him one useful lesson for life at any rate.--Moliere, _Le Malade Imaginaire_ (1673).

BELISA'RIUS, the greatest of Justinian's generals. Being accused of treason, he was deprived of all his property, and his eyes were put out. In this state he retired to Constantinople, where he lived by begging. The story says he fastened a label to his hat, containing these words, "_Give an obolus to poor old Belisarius_." Marmontel has written a tale called _Belisaire_, which has helped to perpetuate these fables, originally invented by Tzetzes or Caesios, a Greek poet, born at Constantinople in 1120.

BeLISE (2 _syl_.), sister of Philaminte (3 _syl_.), and, like her, a _femme savante_. She imagines that every one is in love with her.--Moliere, _Les Femmes Savantes_ (1672).

BELL (_Adam_), a wild, north-country outlaw, noted, like Robin Hood, for his skill in archery. His place of residence was Englewood Forest, near Carlisle; and his two comrades were Clym of the Clough [_Clement of the Cliff_] and William of Cloudesly (3 _syl_.). William was married, but the other two were not. When William was captured at Carlisle, and was led to execution, Adam and Clym rescued him, and all three went to London to crave pardon of the king, which, at the queen's intercession, was granted them. They then showed the king specimens of their skill in archery, and the king was so well pleased that he made William a "gentleman of fe," and the two others yeomen of the bedchamber.--Percy, _Reliques_ ("Adam Bell," etc.), I. ii. I.

_Bell_. Anne, Charlotte, and Emily Bronte a.s.sumed the _noms de plume_ of Acton, Currer, and Ellis Bell (first half of the nineteenth century). Currer Bell or Bronte married the Rev. Arthur Bell Nicholls.

She was the author of _Jane Eyre_.

It will be observed that the initial letter of both names is in every case preserved throughout--_Acton_ (Anne), _Currer_ (Charlotte), _Ellis_ (Emily), and _Bell_ (Bronte).